I hope everyone had a great weekend and a belated Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads in our lives. We had a pretty great day celebrating this guy here…he got in an early game of golf, followed by lots of homemade treats, gifts, banners, and pictures when he got home. We relaxed around the house and smoked some delicious ribs, and then played out back with the kids. I adore how excited they get to celebrate these holidays.

Not only did we get to celebrate Father’s Day on Sunday, but also our 12th Anniversary!! Wow, 12 years!! So much has happened in those 12 years…2 doctorates, 2 houses, 3 babies, and lots and lots of wonderful trips, times with friends, and memories with family.

This time of year, while joyful, can be a little hard on my emotions as well. It was 2 days after our 7th anniversary that Aaron was diagnosed with cancer. This week will be Aaron’s 5 year mark…a reason to celebrate and thank God for all this time we have been given. He has been so brave in his on and off battle with this disease. I would be lying if I didn’t mourn our life prior to his diagnosis. I look back to our wedding day and years prior to his diagnosis when things were easier, we were more innocent, and we didn’t have as many questions when we looked to to the future. At times it is almost hard to look at pictures of our “old life”. When I reflect on the past 5 years, what I am most proud of and most grateful for is that we made the decision to continue living our life. We both made a conscious decision to continue to move forward in our life not knowing if we had months or years or decades left together. And I am so grateful we did…we have traveled, had another baby, bought a new house…all things that may have seemed crazy to some looking in from the outside. I think it certainly would have been easier to give into the difficulties with this disease and fall into a cycle of self-pity…especially when everything is unknown. I cannot imagine if we had chosen to live that way for the past 5 years. Choosing happiness, optimism, and hope are all ways we continue to beat this disease. We chose to not let this rule our life; we chose to move forward with hope and faith and excitement.

And now for an update on Aaron. If you remember from my last update, Aaron’s cancer returned at the beginning of this year after a 4 month break from his last chemo. He has been on a similar, but different, regimen for the past 5 months. He has tolerated this regimen okay…the second day after his infusion is pretty rough, and he gets pretty sick. But 2 days post treatment, he is back to his usual self. This gives us 2.5 weeks of a pretty normal life – which I will take!

Aaron had a scan earlier in May and it showed good news. The small areas that showed active cancer in January were stable in size. While they were not gone (which would have been ideal), the cancer areas haven’t grown or spread, which means his regimen is working. His cancer marker lab, which was elevated in Jan, has returned to baseline. As his doctor pointed out, these couple lymph nodes were very, very small to begin with. He will have another scan around the end of July/begining of August. Depending on the results, we will determine if he should stay on this regimen (if things are stable), switch to a new regimen (if things worsen), or take a break from chemo (if everything is clear). While I love breaks from chemo, and know he deserves them, it is very hard to go on these breaks…and just wait for it to come back… So we will see what the next scan brings.

Until then, we are busy working on the house (I was going to update on that here, but it turned into a novel and I figured the house deserved it’s own post!), planning trips, and spending lots of fun times with our friends and family. I love summer and am trying my best to soak in all these fun times!

Thank you to all of you who check in, offer help, or just know when I don’t want to talk about it.

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Hi! I am Brooke Wegner. Blushing Momma is a space where I share things I am passionate about...fashion, skincare, home decor, and motherhood. It is also a place where I share my journey through motherhood and life's beautiful, fun, and difficult moments. I am so glad you are here!